NEW YORK (AP) -Stephon Marbury was back in uniform for the New York Knicks on Wednesday after missing most of the past month following the death of his father.
Marbury missed 10 of 13 games since Donald Marbury died during the Knicks’ loss to Phoenix on Dec. 2. Stephon Marbury tried to come back right after the funeral, but left after two games, and has played just once since.
He returned to practice late last week but was not in uniform for Sunday’s loss to Chicago. Knicks coach Isiah Thomas expected to use him for about half of Wednesday’s game against Sacramento.
“You may let him go just to blow it out, but if he starts hurting the team because of his conditioning then we’ll take him out,” Thomas said.
“He feels that he’s ready to play emotionally, and physically he’s had enough practices up underneath him that I think that he can definitely play 20-25 minutes. I don’t know if he’s ready to play a 40-minute game, but we’ll see.”
Leading scorer Jamal Crawford also was back and in the starting lineup after missing a game because of a bruised right hand. Thomas also put Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph back in the lineup together after breaking them up for the previous two games.
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